


Thinking in Color

by bazinga01



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-01
Updated: 2012-05-01
Packaged: 2021-01-20 17:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21285587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bazinga01/pseuds/bazinga01
Summary: Brittany needs help with something and Rachel is the one assigned to help her.
Kudos: 2





	Thinking in Color

She's barely removed her head from her locker when someone slams the door of it shut just inches away from her face.

She jumps at the loud metallic clang, whipping her head to the side to see the source of the intrusion.

"San- Santana…hello, hi. W-why are you slamming my locker?"

Rachel clutches her books slightly tighter to her chest and cringes as Santana's stare bores into her.

"I hear you've got a tutoring session this afternoon," she speaks quietly, attacking Rachel in a muted tone.

"What are you talking about?" she questions, furrowing her brows in confusion.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You volunteer with the tutoring center after school a couple times a week," Santana explains impatiently, keeping her voice neutral so as not to alert anyone else in the hallway.

"Y-yes. But I don't see how that has anything to do with you..." She searches Santana's face, trying to understand what this confrontation is really about.

"You're working with Brittany this afternoon. On her English paper. The tutoring services office emailed her to say that she'd been assigned to you," she states quietly.

Rachel scrunches her forehead, waiting for Santana to get to the point. "And?"

"And I will _end_ you if I find out that you've made fun of her," Santana seethes quietly.

Her eyes widen in surprise.

"Santana…I would _never_. Brittany is a sweetheart. I'm looking forward to working with her."

Santana searches her eyes, trying to confirm the truth of her words.

"W-why are you being so protective, anyway?" she questions Santana with hesitance. "You guys aren't…_together_ like that anymore."

She sees Santana flinch and her eyes become guarded.

"I'm still allowed to care, Berry," she bites back. "And I _mean_ it. Just be patient and help her." Santana glances around the hallway self-consciously to make sure no one is listening. "She needs to pass junior year. I can't be a senior next year without her."

Rachel nods in understanding, and Santana gives her a curt nod in response before spinning on her heels and disappearing down the hall, Cheerios pleats fluttering as she strides away.

**XXxxXX**

Rachel is sitting in an empty classroom, looking through Mr. Porter's brief notes about the most pressing academic issues that need to be addressed with Brittany for her English class.

She looks up from the table when the door clicks open, and Brittany enters the room, Cheerios jacket draped open over her upper body and backpack nestled against her shoulders.

She looks over at her and gives her a kind smile. "Hi, Brittany."

"Hi, Rachel," she replies brightly in response. "Mr. Porter says I need extra help. And I guess you're my help."

"Yes, I'm your help," she agrees, while Brittany makes her way over to the chair next to Rachel and gracefully takes a seat.

"I failed my last paper," she states bluntly, glum expression on her face.

"I know. Mr. Porter left me some notes," she explains gently. "That's why he wants you to work with someone. But he's letting you resubmit the paper to try for a passing grade, so that's good at least."

Brittany hums in reply, with a faraway look in her eyes. "But I can't pass the paper if I still suck at words."

"That's what we're going to work on," Rachel replies kindly, giving her a light smile. "The notes here say that the assignment was to write a two to three page paper about something or someone that inspires you and why."

She nods. "I wrote about the guy who works at the Lima Bean with the awesome curly hair."

Rachel's smile widens and she bites her lip, subtly shaking her head. "Why did you write about him?"

"Because he makes the greatest frappucinos," Brittany looks into her eyes and replies, as if this is the most obvious thing ever.

"And…that's inspiring?" she questions.

"Totally. Have you _tried_ one of his frappucinos? They're like frozen heaven in a cup, Rachel."

She laughs lightly at Brittany's seriousness, but not with any real malice. If anything, it's an appreciation of how this girl's mind operates.

Rachel glances down at Mr. Porter's notes again. It says that though he wants her to pick a better topic, he's more concerned about her grammar and syntax than he is about the subject matter.

"I'm sure his frozen beverages are delicious, but why don't we think about some other possible topics? What else inspires you, Brittany?"

Brittany scrunches her forehead, staring at the desk in concentration. "I'm not sure. Lord Tubbington's pretty awesome."

"Who?"

"My cat." Brittany looks at her like she's crazy. Who doesn't know who Lord Tubbington is?

"That's…another possibility," Rachel answers slowly, trying not to blatantly deny Brittany's suggestions.

She continues to stare at the desk, but doesn't add any further comments.

Rachel observes her profile curiously, searching for a way to make this approachable and exciting for Brittany.

"What about dance? You _love_ to dance."

"I can't write about _dancing_, Rachel," she rolls her eyes in response.

"Why not?" Rachel looks at her in confusion.

"Because dancing is what _I_ do. The paper's about inspiring stuff. Which is stuff that _other_ people do that motivates you."

"That's not necessarily true, Brittany. Inspiration can come from so many different things, even things that _you_ do. Tell me- how do you feel when you dance?"

Brittany stares into space wistfully, a small smile gracing her lips.

"Weightless. But still a force. Like I can conquer anything. Like there's something that I'm good at…that I'm meant to do."

Rachel smiles in response, watching Brittany's entire demeanor transform as she talks about what she loves.

"And you don't think that's inspiring? Doing something that makes you feel that way about yourself?"

She questions Brittany, looking into kind blue eyes.

"I guess it is when you put it that way."

Rachel nods in excitement and stands up, gently grabbing Brittany's hands.

"Come here." She leads Brittany over to the white board and reaches behind the teacher's desk, pulling out a box of assorted whiteboard markers.

Brittany looks at her nervously. "I have to write my paper on the whiteboard?"

"No," she replies, pulling out several markers and placing them along the bottom of the board. "Just words. Single words. I want you to write words or phrases about how dancing makes you feel. You can use different colors if they help to separate the feelings."

Brittany's smile brightens and she looks at Rachel more confidently. "Just words?"

"Just words." Rachel smiles back. She really hopes this plan will work. The thing is, Brittany's mind works completely differently than most. And maybe if Brittany can tangibly organize her words using her own system, this will help to piece together a more cohesive and understandable paper.

Brittany grabs an orange marker and writes the word "HAPPY" in all capital letters in the middle of the board. Then she reaches for the light blue marker and adds the word "calm" in lowercase letters at a slant in the upper right hand corner.

She doesn't need any further prompting from Rachel, and after a few seconds Rachel steps back and sits down on the closest chair, letting Brittany do her thing.

She watches Brittany flutter around, reaching for different colors and progressively adding more descriptive words to the board. The more that time passes, the more that the words begin to evolve from single adjectives into more complex phrases.

There's about twelve different colors littering the board right now, and to anyone else it would look like a disorganized mess. But the more that she analyzes the board, the more she realizes that Brittany has actually created a pattern.

Purple is words and phrases that relate to performing for _other_ people.

Blue is all stuff that makes her relax and calms her mind.

Green has to do with self-confidence.

It's the most fascinating word picture she's ever seen, and Brittany continues to add to it effortlessly, not even aware of the unique masterpiece that she's slowly creating.

She doesn't stop until nearly forty minutes later, and there's hardly any white space left on the board.

Brittany caps the orange marker again and turns to face Rachel.

"Now what?" she asks brightly.

Rachel smiles in response. "Come stand next to me."

Brittany skips over and stands next to Rachel, facing the white board from a few feet away.

"Look at what you just created."

Brittany stares at her own creation and nods. "It's pretty."

"It is. It's also really smart," Rachel says, turning to look at her.

Brittany's eyes widen and she searches Rachel's eyes, waiting for the inevitable joke.

"It is?"

"Yep. You see how your feelings and thoughts are sorted by color?"

"Uh-huh," Brittany looks back towards the board.

"Now think of each color as a group in your paper. Some colors might be a whole paragraph and some might be only be a part of a paragraph. Because some colors are actually related to each other in terms of the topic. When you work on your paper tonight and tomorrow, think about these groups you made. And put your paper together that way."

Brittany furrows her eyebrows and tilts her head, still observing the colorful board.

"I just write by color?"

Rachel smiles widely. "For now. Just write by color. When we meet again on Thursday, then we'll work on fixing grammar and spelling mistakes. But I have a feeling that the organization of your paper is going to be pretty great now."

"Awesome," Brittany breathes, marveling at her own creation. "Rach, can I take some pictures of the board with my phone to bring home? I don't wanna forget stuff."

"Of course."

Brittany smiles brightly and pulls out her phone, snapping pictures of different sections of the whiteboard.

"So we're done for today?" Brittany asks her in surprise when she finishes taking pictures.

"We are. We've been here for almost exactly an hour. You were writing for a while," Rachel smiles.

Brittany ducks her head shyly. "Sorry."

"Hey, no! You were amazing today, Brittany. Don't apologize for how much time you spent. I think this is really going to help you with your paper."

She raises her head to meet Rachel's eyes again, wide smile stretching across her face.

"I do too."

Rachel makes her way back their original table, gathering her own books and filing them away in her backpack.

Brittany skips over a moment later, backpack already zipped up strapped to her shoulders.

She's smiling brightly and she leans forward towards her. Rachel waits to be engulfed in a hug, but instead feels soft warm lips connect with hers gently for a moment.

When Brittany pulls away, she is all smiles and not a trace of awkward. "Thanks, Rach! You're totally my favorite person today."

She flashes one last smile, before gracefully exiting the classroom.

Rachel stands there in mild shock, trying to comprehend what just happened.

Eventually, she manages to shake herself out of her stupor and she slings her bag over her shoulder, turning off the classroom light and heading towards the parking lot.

A couple of hours later, when she is at her desk in her room finishing up her calculus homework, she hears her phone ding with a text message alert.

She drops her pencil and reaches over to her bed to check the message.

_Brittany showed me the pictures of what you guys did today. I've never seen her so excited to work on homework before. Thanks Rachel._

She re-reads the text from Santana another couple of times to make sure it's actually real before she clicks the button to reply.

_ **It was no trouble. This is kind of awkward but I have to ask- does Brittany normally kiss friends goodbye?** _

She waits nearly five minutes before her phone finally beeps again.

_It's just a sign of affection when she's happy. She's done it to Quinn before too. Just consider it a compliment and move on. She doesn't mean anything more by it._

So Brittany really does just kiss her friends when she feels like it.

Even though Rachel should be kind of thrown off by this, it really doesn't bother her as much as she would expect.

For the most part her tutoring work is pretty thankless. Kids grumble the entire time and then disappear and soon as the mandatory hour is up.

So if Brittany wants to keep working hard every Tuesday and Thursday in tutoring and then kiss her goodbye in thanks-

Well…it's Brittany.

And she'll just go along with it.


End file.
